The Queen of Hearts
by VasilisaTheAngel
Summary: Harley Quinn lives the life of a criminal with the Joker whom she will always be madly in love with. But what will happen when an old friend from her childhood tracks her down, a friend who, now, only goes by the name of the Queen of Hearts? Some Joker/Harley but not the main focus, OC warning


The rain beat down upon Gotham City, ruining what was to be a gloriously sunny day. The dark grey clouds covered the sky making the city look gloomy and also making Arkham Asylum look more ominous then ever. Speaking of which, the asylum had been quiet for months now; no one new had escaped and Batman hadn't brought anyone back so many of them must still be at large. So, with this in mind, it must of come as quite a surprise when one of the guards notices a petite figure running up the hill, fighting off the rain with a slightly battered looking umbrella. As the figure grew closer it's features became more apparent; it was a woman, probably in her mid-twenties, she was of average hight and long, platinum blonde hair that when down to her mid-back. She was wearing a long sleeved red shirt, a white and black tartan mini-skirt and black heels.

The woman stood in front of the giant building, a slightly nervous expression on her face, she wasn't on the register for Arkham and none of the guards recognised her from anywhere in Gotham; she was probably an outsider, in Gotham the visit family but, if so, why on earth was she at the asylum? To find out they would, of course, have to let her in. One of the guards sighed and opened the great iron doors. The moment they were open enough for her to fit through, the woman dashed inside. She closed her umbrella and shook it violently in an attempt to 'dry it'

"Good-day miss, may I ask who you are and why you've come here?" The guard said with a straight, monotonous face.

"I-I'm Estelle Valentine and, uh, is Dr. Harleen Quinzel here? I need to speak to her..." The man laughed deeply. This woman must be an outsider, or just completely oblivious to everything around her.

"Ah, that has to be the funniest thing I've heard all day! Miss Valentine, may I ask where you're from?"

"Brooklyn,"

"And how long have you been in Gotham?"

"Since this morning..."

"So I take it you haven't seen any newspaper?"

"No and what's with all the questions?"

"You'll see, take a look a this," The man picked a newspaper up off of the floor and passed it to the woman. "Read the headlines," he said, smirking.

Estelle stared at the headlines, not seeing what this man probably wanted her to see. All there was was a grainy, black and white picture and the big, bold headline that read:

**Joker still at large.**

"I don't get it, whaddo yah want me to see?" She asked in confusion, making the guard chuckle.

"Read the first line of the story," he pointed to the small writing under the picture.

"Okay, it says 'the Joker and his henchgirl, Harley Quinn ha-"

"Stop there and read the second name again, sounds an awful lot like the doctors name, don't it?"

"Yeah, I know, Harleen Quinzel sounds like harlequin, heard it all before!" She said quickly, annoyed that this man wouldn't just tell her where her friend was.

"Just take another look, a longer one this time," Estelle nodded and looked back the newspaper. There were two people in the photo, a man and a woman, both in costume and Estelle had to admit that the woman looked quite like Harley. She stared at the page again, mulling things over in her mind. It must have been the fifth time that she had read the page before It clicked.

"Oh my god! That's Harley!" She stated in surprise.

Estelle quickly grabbed her umbrella, opened it and ran out of the, still partially opened, doors, the newspaper tucked under her free arm.

"Uh, thanks for the help!" She called back to the guard who sighed in annoyance.

"I kinda wanted that newspaper back yah know," he muttered quietly before closing the doors, shutting out the wet and the cold.

* * *

Joker ran out of the mall, Harley in hot pursuit, carrying a sack full of gold, silver and diamonds that they had just robbed from the jewellery store. The clown ran down a smaller street and stopped abruptly, surprising the girl behind him.

"So you're sure you've got everything Harley?" He asked impatiently

"Yes Puddin', I've got everything you said we needed!"

"Good, good, and Batman isn't even here yet! This is brilliant!" The Joker clapped his hand together in triumph, acting like he was accepting an award or something. For once everything was going accordingly to plan, him and Harley had managed break into the jewellery store and take everything they wanted without being detected so it was only when they were leaving that the alarms when off. That had been about ten minutes ago now and Batman still hadn't turned up which, for this particular crime, was perfect. Almost too perfect, something was bound to go wrong. Sooner or later.

Suddenly a loud noise echoed down the street, before the clown could see what it was a red and white blur had already zoomed past him.

"HARLEEEEEEEEEEEEEY!" The blur said in a very exited voice. The clown girl suddenly felt something make impact, knocking her over backwards and making the loot bag skid across the street. Harley blinked a couple of times to make sure here brain wasn't deceiving her. There were a pair of bright, emerald green eyes smiling down on her. These eyes belonged to the girl that had just tackled Harley and was now sitting on her stomach.

"Oh my god Harley! I've not seen you in ages!" The girl said with delight.

"Ella?" The clown girl asked woozily. Of course it had to be Estelle! She had never met anyone else who would hide around corners just to tackle hug you when you least expected it!

"Of course it's me you silly!" Estelle said with a massive grin on her face, it was a grin that had always made Harley laugh, just because it didn't look like it belonged on her friends face and sure enough both girls started laughing loudly.

The two girls stood up and hugged. It had seemed like decades since they had last spoke face to face, even though it hadn't been that long at all.

"So what brings you here Ella?"

"Oh mainly the fact that you've not written to me in ages!" The green eyed girl said with obvious rage in her voice.

"Oh my god! I completely forgot! I'm so sorry Ella! I've just been really busy and all..."

"Yeah, I know! You ditched you're job for a psychotic criminal, went on some mad rampage and turned to killing people and stealing crap for a living!" Harley scuffed her feet on the floor, feeling like she should be ashamed of herself. Estelle gave her a stony look, waiting for an answer that Harley didn't know how to give.

"I-I guess I-"

"I've never been more proud of you before in my life! I always knew there was some crazy in you somewhere!" Estelle pulled the other girl into a tight, highly unexpected, hug. "Well done, well done well done!" she cried before releasing the blue eyed girl.

"I, um, I wasn't expecting that..."

"Yeah, I know, that's what makes it so fun! But I should really be thanking this Mr. J you were saying about in those letters! Where is he?" Estelle spun round to see a very annoyed looking Joker holding the loot sack.

"You must me Mr. J! Harley's said some stuff about you before and it's nice to meet the guy who stopped my friend from being so boring!"

"What?"

"Yeah, when Harley got into all that psychology crap she stopped helping me out with my little games! Kept saying thing like 'don't do that Ella! People will get hurt!' Or 'oh Ella you need help! These obsessions are a danger to you and everyone around you!' God! It was like being friends with my mother!" Joker glared, this girl was annoying him. She was like a puppy, to hyper and in your face. He could see why her and Harley were friends.

"Who the hell are you?" He snarled

"Estelle Valentine, The Queen of Hearts! Swords-tress, criminal and weapons extrodinaire!" She did an over the top curtsy and smiled.

"I've still not heard of you..."

"Yeah, I wouldn't of thought so... but I have supplied Gotham with some very unique weapons before, all of which I hand crafted. I'm an eccentric, I specialize in over the top, cartoony weapons. All of them are one-of-a-kind!" Estelle smiled, she could tell that she was acting unusually happy and she also knew it would annoy most people but at this moment she really couldn't care less; the trip to Gotham had been incredibly boring so she was in need of some form of amusement.

Suddenly the sounds of police sirens rang down the street, making the two girls jump. Joker cursed under his breath and threw the loot bag into their beat-up purple car.

"Harley! Get in the car! We gotta get outta here!" He yelled at the henchgirl, who's face fell.

"But what about Ella? I don't wanna just leave her here!" She whined.

"Just get in the blasted car!"

"Pleeeease Puddin'!"

"Give me one good reason why I should," he said begrudgingly, being ever so tempted to just drive off without her.

"Well for starters I know where you guys are hiding_ and_ what you're next lot of plans are," Estelle chipped in.

"What?"

"I've been secretly following you guys round for most of the day..." Joker sighed, he couldn't tell what was the worse option was now; let the girl tag along or leave her there and risk her turning him in. Overall he would prefer _not _being sent back to Arkham again, that fact alone was enough to let her stay and, hey, maybe it would keep Harley out of his way for a while (but probably not).

"Whatever, get in," The two girl grinned and leaped into the car. Harley grabbed the wheel tightly and slammed her foot down on the accelerator, and speed down the street and onto the road ahead.

* * *

The police cars raced down the streets, desperately trying to catch up with the two clowns; if they got away this would be their third successful robbery in the past few weeks. How the hell were they doing so well? The police slowly started to catch up with the purple car and as they did, they saw something quite surprising. There was a girl sat in the back of the car and, by the look on her face, she seemed terrified.

"Crap!" One of the policemen hissed. "Joker's got a hostage!" This meant things had just gone from bad to worse, making it even more vital that they caught up with to clown quickly.

"Damn! Where the hell is Batman when you need 'im?" The other man growled. His question was answered quickly as a dark silhouette suddenly flew past the car, slightly surprising the two men.

"Speak of the devil..." the first man said, smirking at his partner as they pressed on.

* * *

Estelle clung to the back seat of the car like her life depended on it. She was fine with the fact that Harley was a fast driver (especially since they were in the midst of a car chase) but did she have to be so reckless with it? Probably yes. The car screeched around a corner, throwing the girl across the back seat. She gave a small scream before sitting up and trying to readjust herself.

"Did you really have to do that?" Estelle hissed at Harley, feeling slightly disgruntled.

"'Course I did! You want us to get away right?" The clown girl replied sharply. She took a quick peek in the rear-view-mirror to see if they had lost the cops. They had, nearly, but unfortunately they had bigger, more bat-like, problems to deal with.

"Looks like we got company," Harley muttered, surprising Joker. He sat bolt upright from his laid-back position.

"What!" He spat a look of rage on his face.

"The B-man's followin' us!" His hench-girl quickly replied, as if it wasn't obvious enough.

"Who?" A very confused Estelle cut in.

"Batman is the local 'hero' he runs round in a weird costume and uses gadgets to catch crooks and crazies since he's got no skill of his own," Harley explained, momentarily taking on a more sophisticated tone of voice. Estelle nodded before quickly hiding behind the front seats as a mass of black swooped over them.

The loud, crunching sound of a large weight hitting metal rang through the surrounding area as Batman landed on the bonnet of the already battered car.

"Hand over the hostage, Joker," he growled in his usual gruff voice.

"Hostage? What hosta- oh! You mean the girl!" Joker said with a smirk.

"W-what's going on?" Estelle squeaked, trying to sound as pathetic as possible, if the cops thought she was a hostage she might as well comply.

"Shut it, kid!" The clown spat making the green eyed girl cower behind the seat even more. Suddenly the car swerved sharply, nearly crashing into a fire-hydrant and, in doing so, made the vigilante slip and almost fall off the bonnet. Harley spun the wheel, making the car swerve again, this time throwing the man off the car and onto the dirty street.

"Yes! Got ridda' 'im" The clown girl shrieked in glee and they drove off into the gloom.

**A/N: Hello thar! Lissa here~ so hope you enjoyed the first chapter =3 This is an Idea I've had for a while but haven't had chance to write until recently but I have loads of ideas so should be able to update quickly! XD Reviews are encouraged, if you think there is something you would like to see happen don't be afraid to ask~ I'd doing some other fanfic with batman or other superheros so I'll say when those have been uploaded, please please please check out my other stories! Aaaaand if you would like to see what Estelle looks like I've done a couple of pictures of her** tenshi - no - shini . deviantart . com** Just take out the spaces and they will be near the front of my archive =3**


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